Zion National Park

After leaving Page AZ we spent an afternoon and the better part of the next day visiting Zion National Park.  It was threatening rain on the afternoon of our arrival.  We drove to the park looked at the visitors center and took a few pictures from highway pullouts.  Go my Flickr page to see more photos.

The change in geology as we entered the park was stark with hills of somewhat crumbling sandstone boulders and dirt suddently changing to solid rock mountains.

 The mountain above is called the checkerboard due to the crosshatched grooves eroded in the rock.

The road entering the East side of the park includes sever tunnels.  One of the tunnels is nearly  a mile long through the solid rock with  several "windows" excavated into the rock face.

Returning to the campground at dusk  it was drizzling rain and continued to rain though the night.  In the morning we found a coating of meting snow on everything.

We revisited the park later in the morning.  The drizzle continued of and on during the day.  We still managed to get quite a few good pictures with the clouds adding a somewhat dramatic element many of the images.

We rode the free shuttle bus up the narrow canyon and walked from the last stop until the the paved trail turned into the  primitive "Narrows" trail into the slot canyon.

 Ina at the end of the paved trail.

Finally, accordng to the Park Service, here is the most dangerous creature in the park.  People often try to feed the squirrels and get bitten.  They are so used to seeing people that one is  tempted to approach them like pets.

Please feel free to post your comments/suggestions in the box below.  Coming soon:  posts on Bryce and Capital Reef National Parks.